


The Door Kicker

by Defnotmeyo



Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 21:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7238353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Defnotmeyo/pseuds/Defnotmeyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder kicks down doors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Door Kicker

He’s the door kicker. It makes sense. Mostly because she’s the better shot, but also, it takes her more than a time or two to kick down a door. 

Maybe that’s why they work out – Mulder and Scully. There’s not really a reason they should get along. Why they should be friends. Why they manage to solve just about every normal case put in front of them. 

They trail bodies like pigeons trail shit. The string of dead on their cases is more impressive than any other set of agents in the Bureau. And that roster of dead is exactly why Walter Skinner does not, under any circumstances, want to be their group supervisor on this raid. But they’re his agents, and they turn in mostly good work, so here he is on a Saturday afternoon.

Skinner’s a little stoked to be in the field. Most of his work these days comes from behind the desk and that’s not really where a Marine wants to be. He hates the top button on his collar, hates the way the fucking tie feels around his neck. When he catches wind of the raid, he’s all in. When he catches wind that himself, Mulder, and Scully will be the three agents responsible for the west end of the compound, he’s a little less happy. 

They’ve only been under his direct supervision for about two years, and he doesn’t quite trust them yet. They’re good but he hasn’t operated much with them and he doesn’t really know what to expect. They are also gigantic pains in his ass and so there’s a little residual tension from Skinner’s perspective. Mulder’s a shit to work with, Scully only less so, and her fake smile drives Skinner up the wall. 

They stay silent for the most part, on the drive over in their blacked out Bureau issued Range Rover. Twenty minutes out from the compound, Walter starts his safety brief.

“We’ve got three areas of responsibility today. They are putting us with ATF on the west end. We’re looking for Trujillo, but they are expecting there to be more than one guy out there with a gun. We want to take Trujillo alive. There are going to be women and children. This place has been operating for a few years. If at any point, either one of you feels like the conditions have changed –“

“Yup.”

“Agent Mulder, you know I have to go word for word through this shit so let me get through it.”

There is a sigh and a crack of a sunflower seed.

“If either one of you feels the conditions shift, and we have to re-evaluate our risk assessment -”

“Yessir.”

“Agent Scully.” Silence and a crack of a sunflower seed.

“Then we will step back from the operation, evaluate and mitigate. Understand?” Another sunflower seed. 

“Roger,” Skinner sighs. He fucking hates working with these two sometimes. “Look, you all have been working together for over three years now. I’m not going to stand in the way. Just do what you do and I’ll be there with a few more bullets if we need them.”  
“Sounds like a plan, sir,” from Scully.

Skinner suddenly hates this stupid raid. He hates Jesus Trujillo, hates cocaine, hates compounds and he sure as fucking hell hates fucking South Carolina. What fucking drug dealer sets up shop in South Carolina anyway? It’s hotter than a mother fucker, his fucking white starched shirt is stuck to his ribcage and pits, the car is fucking blacked out so it’s hotter than hell, and who said his two X-files agents could come along on this, anyway? 

“How’d you guys end up on this shit, anyway? I don’t remember tasking you.”

There’s a crack of a sunflower seed. It sets Walter’s teeth on edge.

“Agent Scully forensic’ed her ass off and managed to nail down a south eastern native plant on the last dead body. They sent the hounds, ended up with the whereabouts on the dude, and told us we were coming along on the raid. Apparently when you shoot   
98 percent on the Q you end up getting voluntold a lot.” Mulder rolls his eyes at his last sentence, but there’s a twitch of a smile on his face as he glances back at his partner in the rearview mirror.

98 percent? Shit. Skinner can shoot a bottle of a rock at 25 yards but 98 percent is ridiculous. If he were prone to getting hard in blacked out Range Rovers in 98 degree 99 percent humidity southern air, he’d be hard. But he’s not prone to that, and that’s super awkward, so instead he’s just impressed.

They park a few hundred yards off the highway from the compound. Skinner starts to see the symmetry.

Mulder walks around the back of the vehicle and tosses Scully her Kevlar. She catches it and casually tosses it down beside her as she loads the pump actions and slaps the magazine in her Glock. She tosses a secondary magazine at Mulder and he jams it down in his rigger’s belt. Walter gets all his shit on but he’s a little miffed they don’t double check him while they double check each other. The Executive Director could have, at the very least, sent four of them out to the west end instead of three. Walter’s a fucking third wheel. These assholes better have his back.

They close down the Range Rover and start to step away from the vehicle. 

“Sir,” Scully starts. Skinner turns. “Your watch.”

He wants to roll his eyes at himself. He hasn’t been on a raid in a couple of years. The last thing you want is to get caught up on any random object in the house. Skinner takes his watch off and tosses it over by the Range Rover. He’s suddenly a lot less apprehensive.

\------

They come up to the first door and ATF is, remarkably, absent. Mulder glances back at Scully and she shrugs her right shoulder. Fuck it – let’s do this. Mulder nods.

They line up by the door and Skinner taps Scully on the shoulder – I’m behind you. 

She glances back and smirks a bit and Skinner kind of wants to punch her but that wouldn’t really be good for the operation. She nudges Mulder in the ribs with her elbow… that’s definitely not standard protocol… and he shrugs his shoulder down – Yeah, I   
got it. I’m about to kick this shit in, give me a second – says that shrug.

Mulder’s a little irritated. ATF should be here, but the assholes aren’t and now HE has to kick down this god damned door and that shit hurts, by the way.

Scully sighs, rolls her eyes, and nudges Mulder again. He nods – okay okay here we go. 

He shifts in front of the door and braces his left leg before hammering his right foot into the door, right by the handle and close to the frame. There’s a satisfying snap as the door bursts open and before Skinner can even move Scully is under Mulder’s right arm, gun drawn, and into the room, slicing the pie and clearing opposite corner. Mulder’s instantly behind her, checking the other side. Symmetry. 

The room is empty but there is one more door. They line up one more time and Skinner taps her again, because that’s protocol and he doesn’t care if his agents don’t give a shit. 

Mulder’s highly irritated. One more door after this and he is going to be pissed. 

Before Skinner can tap again, right as Scully elbows her partner, Mulder’s in front of the door, the crack rings out, and the door is open. Before Skinner can move to help clear, Scully’s depressed her trigger twice from just underneath Mulder’s arm, tucked right into his rib cage. There is a hole Jesus Trujillo’s right hand, a hole in his right shoulder, and a gun on the ground underneath him, swimming in his blood. 98 percent.

Mulder’s on him in an instant and Trujillo is cuffed and mirandized before the ATF even enter the building. Fucking FBI.

\-----

“That was pretty impressive, agents.” Skinner wants to tell the kids they did a good job. It’s something his boss has said he needs to work on.

Mulder huffs a chuckle. “Yeah? Thanks.” 

The car ride home becomes silent again. Uncomfortably so. 

“No. Really. You guys have it dialed in. You said two words to each other the entire time, I feel like.” He is really out on a limb here.

Mulder taps the steering wheel. Bites his lip a bit. “It’s Scully, sir. She’s a dead shot.”

They pass a few more yellow lines in the car.

“Mulder kicks down all the doors,” she offers from the back seat.

Walter gets it. It’s symmetry. He hasn’t had it in the FBI, but he did have it in the Marine Corps. And while Scully isn’t big enough to bust down a door – most of the time – and definitely not on the first kick, she shot expert at the Academy and to Mulder, it doesn’t really matter anyway because she is his partner. He knows as soon as the door is gone and she wraps the corner, if someone has a gun on them, she’s going to get the round off first. 

Skinner lays his head back against the headrest and closes his eyes. It’s been an exhausting week. But the next time they need forty agents on a raid, he knows who he’s going to pick as his team. They’ve officially proved themselves in the field.


End file.
